Saints Silas, Silvanos,
Apainetos and Crescens of the Seventy

Memory celebrated 30 July

The first of the four commemorated on July 30 is Silas,
whose close companionship with the mighty St. Paul was
enough to place him among the saints and who, as one of the
Seventy devoted apostles of the Messiah, contributed
mightily to the cause of Christianity, the more so because
he managed to elude the executioner and to live a full life,
each day of which was pledged to the missionary work of the
Saviour. St. Luke, the Glorious Physician and author of the
Book of Acts of the New Testament speaks in chapter fifteen
of 'Judas and Silas being prophets also themselves, exhorted
the brethren with many words, and confirmed.'

Serving in Antioch with Barnabas and Paul, Silas was
chosen by the latter to project their mission into Syria and
Cicilia, as recorded in Acts 15.40 wherein it says 'And Paul
chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren
unto the Grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cicilia
confirming the churches.' These regions were hostile to the
New Faith of Jesus Christ but in spite of the abuse and
indignities heaped upon the apostles, the salvation of
mankind was brought to crowds who could see the light of
Christianity through the miasma of their irreligious way of
life. Before he departed for Rome, Paul installed Silas as
bishop of Corinth where he served honourably every day of
his long life.

Another of the Seventy favoured of God was Silvanos who
is mentioned in the New Testament in 1 Peter 5.12 which
reads "By Silvanos, a faithful brother unto you, as 1
suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying
that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand." The
great St. Peter uses the word "briefly" to acknowledge that
much more can be said of the Apostle Silvanos, who as the
bishop of Thessaloniki encountered more than his share of
resistance to the worship of a carpenter from distant
Nazareth by a Greek colony as proud of their idolatry as
their art and literature. Bishop Silvanos did not find an
easily swayed audience in his mission, but he did find
audiences with an intelligence to which he appealed with
huge success. His was another long service to Christ in a
complete triumph of Greek Christian conversion which placed
the ancient myths in their proper place, not as truth but as
fancy that have since served to amuse readers of every
civilised language.

Another gallant soldier lost in the ranks of the
Apostolic Seventy was Apainetos whose unfamiliar name is
inscribed for eternity in the New Testament when St. Paul
states in Romans 16.5, "Salute my well beloved Apainetos,
who is the first fruit of Achaia unto Christ." Chosen by the
Apostles to serve as bishop of Carthage in Africa, Apainetos
met with a Carthaginian crowd which was as hostile as any of
the proud Greeks. But with the oratorical skill born of
truth, he had remarkable success in the conversion to
Christianity of those whose priorities lay elsewhere. The
Christian religion became the pre-eminent influence in an
ancient city of Africa which was much more familiar with the
Hannibals that predated the Messiah by centuries.

The last of the sacred Seventy commemorated on this day,
and certainly not the least, was Crescens, whose apostolic
merit is to be found in the magnificent St. Paul's letter to
Timothy in which he writes in 2 Timothy 4.10 the instruction
'Do thy diligence to come shortly to me ... and Crescens to
Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.' Following his mission to
Galatia, Crescens was ordained bishop of Chalcedon, a city
in which he firmly planted Christianity as a faith which
found greater expression than in most other areas for
centuries to come.